The Gold in the Wound
by Ari Starkid
Summary: Brennan and Booth investigate a murder at Tyson's Corner Center. Set a few days after the season 6 finale. T because I'm paranoid. *Another one from my old account.**HIATUS*
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- Another story from my old account. I was certainly into Bones. Which I don't own by the way.**

Special Agent Seeley Booth opened his eyes and rolled over in bed, only half awake. He glanced at the clock, 3:16 a.m., and groaned. What could possibly have woken him up at this hour? He sat up and looked to his left; the bed was empty. Booth sat quietly for a minute then heard his girlfriend, Temperance Brennan, speaking in quiet tones coming from the living room. He got out of bed and followed the sound of her voice.

"I'm at home. Where else would I be?" she whispered into the phone.

There was a pause as the person responded.

"I am not whispering it must be your connection." she lied, "Were you under the impression that I did not have a personal life? Am I to cold and heartless? I'm sorry, I simply dislike waking up. Did you have a reason for waking at this hour other than to question me about my personal life?"

Another pause as they explained the reason for calling at this hour.

"Bones, what are you doing?" Booth asked sleepily.

"I'm on the phone. What does it look like I'm doing?"

"No, that was not Booth. Why couldn't this wait until the morning?", the person she was speaking to reasponded "Well, I do not care that the CEO of The Macerich Company, Arthur M. Coppola, wants to keep the mall open. You will tell him that it is an active crime scene and that all consumers are prohibited from entering the mall until we have closed this case which, I refuse to investigate until the morning. If he has a problem he can take it up with the FBI." she said to the phone.

"What's The Macerich Company? Why are you telling that person I'm not here? Who are you talking to, anyway? And, why couldn't they call at a decent hour?", he asked, feeling a little irritated that he had woken up for what was sounding like that beginning of a long, difficult conversation.

"It's Cam. She's telling me about a body that was found at Tyson's Corner Mall.", she said to him while moving towards her office.

"Okay, we...I'll be there first thing in the morning to investigate the scene. Thanks. Bye." she hung up as she sat down at her desk and started up her MacBook Pro.

"Bones, what are you doing?" Booth asked.

"I'm going to work on my newest Kathy Reichs story. It's about to get interesting between Kathy and Andy, a big change and my publisher needs this book soon. I plan to end it with a cliffhanger. What's my password?" she said struggling to remember.

"Daffodil, why would I tell you that? You are absolutely not going to work at three a.m.", he said while swiftly taking her laptop.

"Booth, Give it back! I usually work this early anyway." she said as she reached for the laptop.

"That was before you were pregnant and before you had me to take care of you." he said

"You always took care of me except when Hannah..." she trailed off. Hannah, Booth's ex-girlfriend was sort of a taboo subject for the couple. They hadn't mentioned her since his disastrous proposal to her approximately seven months earlier. Hannah and Brennan had actually become very good friends during the time she and Booth were together despite the fact that Brennan loved her boyfriend.

"Let's just go to bed, babe." he said. It was obvious that what she had started to say had bothered him.

"Don't call me "babe". I want to talk about her."

"Hannah?"

"Yes."

"Now?"

"Yes. I would not have brought it up if I did not wish to converse about her and what happened now."

"Why?"

"Because I am having mixed feelings and certain aspects of our relationship and your breakup are bothering me and I cannot fully commit to you because of these feelings."

"Okay, Bones. Let's sit down and talk this out. What do you want to talk about first?"

"You said that you loved Hannah that she wasn't a consolation prize…. I don't know I guess… What I'm trying to say is…"

"You're wondering if I ever loved Hannah. Bones, you can love more than one person but, there is only one you loved the most. Did I love Hannah? Yes. But, did I love you? Yes. If I loved Hannah then I loved you one hundred times more. She was absolutely a consolation prize. I lied to you. I couldn't just leave Hannah because of what you told me that night."

"When you proposed to Rebecca and she turned you down, you left her. When you proposed to Hannah and she turned you down, you left her. What about me? I don't know if I am ready for marriage if I will ever be but, I don't know if I could handle you leaving me because I couldn't marry you. I'm just not sure if I can give you what you want, marriage and the perfect family. And I don't want you to feel and obligation towards me because I'm pregnant with your child…" she trailed off again and Booth could see tears in her eyes and knew she was about to cry.

He felt awful that she could think that she was the same as Rebecca and Hannah. She was different, she was the one and he wasn't going to let her go because she didn't want to marry him. He turned to look at her again and saw tears silently streaming down her face.

"Oh no, no, no, Bones please don't cry." he said as he pulled her into a tight embrace, "I would never force you to marry me and you are not an obligation. I'm with you because I love you. Got that?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Now that that is settled lets go to bed.", he said as he carried her to their bedroom and placed her on the bed.

"Good Night, Booth."

"G'night, Bones."

**A/N- Yup. Review.**


	2. Chapter 2

__**A/N- Another chapter from the story that I suspect came from an unhealthy obsession with Bones. Not that my worship of Starkid now is natural... I own nothing.**

_"Help me Bones! Save me! Don't make me leave like you made Vincent!" he screamed as he pounded on the glass window of the car._

_"Booth, Booth! Let him go Taffet!" Brennan screamed as she saw Booth being buried alive before her eyes._

_"Never! Your child will grow up never knowing its father and the guilt will be on your shoulders because you weren't strong enough to save him!" Taffet taunted._

_Brennan tried to move but, her feet appeared to be glued to the floor._

_"Booth, Booth, Boooooooooth!"_

Brenna woke in cold sweat and glance at the clock, 7:00 a.m. She had told Cam that she would be there first thing in the morning but, "someone" had turned off her alarm clock so, that obviously would not be possible. She quickly looked over at the man sleeping next to her and touched his cheek, reassuring herself that Booth was still alive and well. She sat up in bed and was immediately overcome by a wave of nausea.

"Morning sickness" she thought to herself and ran to the bathroom.

Hearing her get up Booth awoke a few moments later to find himself alone in bed, again. He went into the bathroom and found her crouched over the toilet throwing up in it. He went over and held her hair back while rubbing her back in a soothing motion.

"Go away, Booth!" Brennan said pushing him away.

"Gee Bones. How 'bout a 'Good morning Booth. How was your night?'? Here I'll start. Good morning Bones. How was your night? I hope it was better than your morning." he said teasingly.

"It was not better. I do not want to talk about it right now. Can you just go, please?"

Booth sighed. He hated that she wouldn't let him help her. She couldn't handle the entire pregnancy by herself. And the nightmares. And the murders. He wanted her to talk to him, to confide in him. What did she dream about? He had a pretty good idea but, wanted to hear it from her.

"Okay, I'll wait outside."

Fifteen minutes later Brennan emerged, fully dressed, from the bedroom, carrying her purse.

"Let's go. Can I drive?"

"Absolutely not. You're pregnant."

"So I've heard."

"Bones, was that sarcasm I detected? Was it sarcasm used correctly?" he teased.

"No, I was simply stating a fact." Her face so honest that he knew that she didn't know it was sarcasm.

The couple walked down the stairs and got into Booth's black SUV. A few minutes into the ride Booth made an abrupt u-turn and pulled into the Starbucks parking lot.

"What are you doing, Booth?"

"We're gonna be late so I'm going to get some coffee for Cam to soften her up."

"Can you get me some coffee as well?"

"Okay. Decaf…"

"Grande Americano."

"Fruit Salad?"

"Better not risk it."

"You need to eat."

"What's the point if it won't stay down? No coffee either please."

"You will eat later." He said definitively.

They arrived at the scene thirty minutes late at 8:30 a.m., parked next to the Medico-Legal van, and got out of the car. A police officer led them to the scene. They went up to the second over pass right below the movie overpass and entered the mall. The group then walked down the stairs and continued through the mall. They passed a maternity store. Brennan turned away. She had to do her job here not focus on the baby. They approached a closet near the pen store and saw Cam, looking extremely irritated, tapping her foot.

"Coffee?" Booth said with a cheery smile.

"Where have you two been?"

"I went to pick up Bones and then we saw a bank getting robbed so, we stopped to save the money. Then, we had to rescue a baby that was in a stroller that had rolled into the street."

"Sure." Cam said sarcastically.

"That is not what happened!" Brennan said, jumping into their conversation.

"Bones!" Booth scolded.

"What happened is... Booth came to get me but, I hadn't set my alarm so, Booth had to wake me up. Then, we stopped for coffee at Starbucks and then came straight here. Anyway, where is the body?"

"It's in this closet."

Brennan walked into the closet which was better described as a small room. She bent over to get a better look at the body and the overwhelming smell of rotting flesh hit her full on. She threw up all over the body. When she saw what had happened she ran out towards the parking lot tears streaming down her face.

"What just happened?" Cam asked, seeing her run off.

"You had better see it for yourself ma'm." said an overweight mall cop.

"Oh my God! Booth!"

"Yes."

"She threw up all over the body. Can you go make sure she's okay? Maybe take her home, force her to rest. I hope it's not contagious."

"It's not."

Brennan ran towards the parking garage. She got into Booth's car only to remember that he still had the keys. She took out her iphone 4s.

"Siri. Call Angela Montenegro." she commanded the phone. The phone complied and dialed Angela's phone number, 240-687-9320. The phone rang three times before she picked up. In the backround Brennan could hear Michael crying in the backround. She doubted if calling Angela had been a good idea, she had so much to do and had only just gotten out of the hospital.

"This is Angela."

"It's me."

"I know. We all have caller ID now remember? What's up?"

"Can you come and get me?"

"Are you crying?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine. Where are you?"

"I'm at Tysons Corner Mall."

"Decided to have a little fun?"

"No, someone got murdered."

"At the mall?"

"Yes."

"Why can't you drive yourself?"

"Booth drove me here."

"Why can't he drive you?"

"Can we talk about this later?"

"Of course. We're on our way."

"Bye."

Brennan hung up the phone. Within a few seconds, she had a text from Booth

_"were r u?"_

_"im fine"_

_"i was worid."_

_"i was not evn gon 10 min"_

_"alot can hapen in 10 min"_

_"ill c u l8r"_

_"why not now?"_

_"im going somwere w/o u!"_

_"r u gonna b ok alon?"_

_"i wont b alon."_

_"who wil u be w/?"_

_"bye."_

A few minutes later Angela's minivan came into sight.

"How did you get here so fast? Were you speeding?"

"Maybe a bit but, when your best friend calls you, is at the mall, in tears, dealing with murder, and with a guy who she doesn't want to talk about over the phone, you get there fast."

"Is that a rule?"

"Yes, yes it is."

"I will remember it."

**A/N- Review.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N- Are you ready for the shortest chapter I have ever written? I don't know why it was so short. But anyway, as always I don't own Bones.**

They arrived at Angela's house an hour later. The traffic had been bad as usual because of the Metro and other construction projects. The car ride had passed in silence with the exception of Michael who had woken up from his nap and then promptly started crying. Brennan was a little apprehensive. Not because she was worried about Angela's reaction. She knew that Angela would be ecstatic about her pregnancy. But, that was about the only thing she wasn't worried about. What were her coworkers thinking about what happened at the crime scene? Was she going to be a good mother? What about Booth? What were they? They hadn't really talked about their relationship or the baby yet. Sure, he had been staying at her place and sleeping with her but, Brennan couldn't tell exactly what their relationship was. And even though Booth had seemed happy when she told him she wasn't sure if he was still happy about their predicament.

"Alright Bren, spill. What exactly happened at the crime scene and WHAT is going on between you and Booth? And don't you dare tell me its nothing because what you told me the day after Vincent died cannot just be forgotten. And I KNOW something happened at the crime scene because you wouldn't have called me otherwise." Angela asked once they had sat down on the couch. She wondered what Brennan was going to say. She imagined different scenarios. None were close to what Brennan said next.

Brennan was debating how to tell her. Should she hint at it and hope Angela knew what she was talking about or go for the direct approach? She decided to go for the direct approach.

"Ange, I-I'm pregnant.

"Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh. We are gonna be moms together this is gonna be so fun our kids are gonna be best friends then they're gonna get married and then we're really gonna be sisters…" She stopped seeing the expression on her best friends face. "What's wrong? This is a good thing. Are you not happy? Is Booth unhappy?"

"I believe that Booth is happy." Brennan said somewhat sadly.

"What about you?" Angela demanded. She could not imagine why her best friend would be unhappy. She had the man of her dreams, literally. And, they we having a baby together.

"I—I'm scared."

"What could you possible be scared of?"

"Everything, metaphorically of course. That I'm going to be a bad mother. That Booth will be disappointed in me. That he's only with me because of the baby. I don't want him to feel that he has to stay with me—

Angela put a comforting arm around her friends shoulder, "Stop right there sweetie! All of those are pointless concerns. Have you told him this? Because I know that he would want to know. Now, what happened at the crime scene?"

"Oh My God. Ange it was so embarrassing. We got to the crime scene, I took one look at the body, and the moment I smelled it I threw up all over it. I can't believe I compromised the remains. What is everyone going to think now?" Angela laughed, "Angela, this is not funny."

"You had a normal reaction to a dead, fleshy body for a change. And your pregnant you're supposed to throw up. And as for what everyone else will think. Don't worry about it. They'll understand. Wait, where's Booth? I'm surprised he let you out of his sight."

At that moment the front door creeped open.

"Hey y'all where's that precious little boy of yours?"

**A/N-Review.**


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